Friendship and Love
by RAWRcarrie
Summary: Luna Lovegood is left without a home after the Battle at Howarts, Neville offers her a place to stay until she gets things figured out. He finds himself falling hard for the dreamy girl and they have a light romance,


"Thanks again Neville, you're a real friend." Said Luna in her serene voice.

He smiled nervously at her,

" My room is right across the hall if you need anything just ask alright?" He said kindly.

He hoped Luna didn't find him weird, it must be so different from her home. He couldn't even imagine her house, she was so unique and her father was so, well weird. He was sure at one point their house had been boastfully bizarre but it was among the many places the fight against Voldemort had ruined. Neville had kindly offered Luna a place to stay while she figured things out. Secretly he hoped it would take her some time. Having her in the room across from his without her knowing how he felt was already driving Neville crazy and this was the first night.

Neville had a crush on her as soon as she started at Hogwarts, but the time she was a Hogwarts before she was kidnapped by death eaters was when he really fell in love. Not only was she beautiful but she was strong, clever, and resilient. Somehow she had survived being kidnapped and retained her spirit. He deeply admired that about her, so many people had suffered and died. Luna was like a ray of sunshine breaking through dark smog. Yawning Neville lie in his bed and fell quickly to sleep.

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Several hours later Neville woke up to use the bathroom, when he walked down the stairs he heard crying coming from the bedroom across. It hurt his heart to imagine Luna in there sobbing. He felt like he had to do something so he quietly opened the door. There she was, he could see her face clearly in the moonlight she was fast asleep but tears rolled down her pale cheeks and occasionally she whimpered and began to sob. Transfixed Neville stared at her for several moments, he knew he should leave but he was frozen. Suddenly she screamed loudly.

"NOOOOOO! PLEASE NOOO! "

Her body started to heave as she cried harder. Neville sprang to action, he rushed to her bed and shook her awake carelessly.

"Luna, it's only a dream. Luna wake up, it's me Neville. You're safe, I promise." Neville said softly.

Luna's electric blue eyes snapped open, fear left over from her nightmare clouded her face still. After a moment her normal expression took over and she spoke.

" Thank you for waking me up Neville. I didn't realize I was making any noise... I'm so sorry if I woke you up, what a horrible first night as a visitor," Luna looked embarrassed, which for Neville was strange indeed. Luna had always been so self assured.

"Do you want a Dreamless Sleep potion? My gran always has some in the kitchen. It'll help you sleep."

"No thank you, I don't believe in taking medicinal potions unless it's absolutely necessary" Luna replied in her dreamy voice,

"Besides I've gotten plenty of sleep for tonight. I think il take a walk, the moonlight is very soothing, would you care to join me?

"That's sounds.. Nice, let me put some jeans on I'll meet you outside" Neville said somewhat nervously.

With a sheepish nod he slipped into his room. After trying to put his pants on backwards and having to restart he got his pants on and ran down the stairs. He was excited and nervous, he knew she wasn't thinking of this romantically but to him a stroll in the moonlight with Luna Lovegood was heaven. When he reached his front door he took a deep breath and opened it, she had wondered a bit from the front door and was examining his grandmothers rose bushes with great interest. In his eyes she was the epitaph of beautiful; her hair was down and in the moon shone on it making it look like corn silk.

She saw him looking at her and waved for him to join her. He rushed to her like a puppy dog.

"Do you think your Gran would mind if I set up some Nargle traps around these bushes, they love the smell of roses, and I'd love to be the first person to catch one!" Luna said excitedly.

"I'm sure she wouldn't care... What are Nargles again?" said Neville,

"They're tiny bugs that move into your ears and make you hear things." She answered matter of factly.

"Why would you want... Never mind, I'm sure it's fine with gran, I'll even help you set them up tomorrow. May I show you around the grounds? Gran has an award winning garden. My greenhouse is something special it rivals Professor Sprouts in size and rarity of plants." said Neville proudly.

He offered her an arm which she clutched making his heart rate accelerate. Together they walked, slowly around the large grounds that had belonged to the Longbottom's for over eight generations.

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The first month of Luna's stay passed in a haze for Neville, each night they would go to bed separately and like clock work Luna would have a bad dream and they'd be in his greenhouse together. To his delight she adored his greenhouse, during the day she would help him take care of all his plants, then at night it turned into a magical safe place for each of them. They spent long hours talking about their dreams and desires.

Luna wished to travel the world looking for magical creatures and even no magical creatures. She supposed she wished to be a naturalist and follow nature wherever it wanted her to go. She confided in Neville that the only time she really felt completely at ease was amongst nature. She even told him that when when she was very young her father used to wake up in a panic with his wife and child gone only to find them safely asleep in the grass under the stars.

In return Neville shared his humble dream of being a Hogwarts professor whenever Professor Sprout retired and expanding his collection of exotic plants. He too wished to travel the world, but only after he retired. His plan was to live out his golden years traveling the world and perhaps running a bed and breakfast to support his travels. He didn't add that he had recently began imagining her with him, silver haired and still beautiful.

Tonight Neville had plans, instead of going to sleep he snuck down to the kitchen quietly and prepared a small picnic. He fixed some lovely roast beef sandwiches and chopped up all types fruit into a fruit salad. After a brief search though the pantry he found a small bottle of elvish wine. It was delicious, made from dandelions infused with all sorts of herbs and sweet apples. He added that to his pile of picnic items and went to find a basket and some nice glasses.

Neatly he arranged the small picnic in the basket he had found, taking care to wrap the glasses in the blanket he had grabbed so they wouldn't break. All done he picked up the basket now laden with food and drink and carried it out the back door to his greenhouse, tucking it out of sight behind one of his larger blackthorns. Then he returned to his bedroom to wait nervously for Luna to wake up.

It made him feel bad that he so looked forward to Luna having nightmares, but it didn't cross his mind that night. He'd made up his mind, he was going to pour his heart out to Luna and let her know how he felt. He couldn't just hold it in any longer. Each day and night he spent with her made him fall a little harder, and he felt like if he didn't tell her soon he'd be in over his head. As if on cue he heard her start whimpering.

Stepping lightly, Neville crossed his room and went out the door, he stood at her door waiting for her crying to get heavier before entering her room and waking her up.

" You're okay Luna, wake up. It's all a dream." he said softly.

When she sat up she looked confused for a moments than relieved,

"I think my dreams are getting worse... I feel so lost when I try to snap out of them."

"Maybe it's time you start using the Dreamless Sleep Potion?" Neville suggested, secretly hoping she would decline.

"Perhaps... Tomorrow maybe. I'm already awake, didn't you say you had to move the venomous tentacula into the moon light tonight and feed it?" Luna asked.

" I had completely forgotten! Yeah, wanna help me? I always enjoy watching her eat." said Neville.

She nodded and stood up grabbing a light sweatshirt. Her natural dreamy attitude was returning, she marched right out the door with him trailing behind. After a quick stop off in the kitchen to get some meat for his venomous tentacula they were in the greenhouse. Neville was glad he had thought to tuck his picnic out of sight. Together they carefully lifted the large plant and moved it outside into the moonlight. It took a few moments to soak in the moonlight before it woke up, the plant knew when he outside it was feeding time, Neville was a very talented plant keeper most of his predatory plants were well trained and of little danger as long as you didn't disrupt them.

" Stand back a little, I don't want her to for you, she's pretty well behaved but I don't take any chances. You can meet her once she's eaten." Neville warned.

Neville took a handful of the chopped up meats and hand fed it to the waiting mouth that had settled itself over his shoulder. It was beautiful once you got past how scary it looked, a flower with a mouth and spiky teeth. Once it was full Neville called Luna over. He settled it around her shoulders. She looked so beautiful when she was nervous, he thought to himself as the tentacula smelled her and familiarized itself with her scent. She seemed to pass inspection as it began to purr softly. It always purred after it's belly was nice and full but Neville didn't want to ruin Luna's excitement.

"I think it likes me!" Luna exclaimed quite pleased.

"I call her Vermy, odd name I know. I meant to call her venomy one night and it came out all jumbled but I stuck with it, she seems to like it. Let's let her rest, she loves to soak up the moonlight, we can put her back in the greenhouse before we go inside." Neville said, gently lifting the vine from around Luna's shoulder and placing it onto the wooden braces he had designed for the plant when it began to grow larger.

He politely opened the door to the greenhouse for her and followed her into the humid plant utopia. They sat down in their usual spot underneath the blackthorn trees and ficus bushes. As soon as they were comfortable Neville reached behind the appropriate blackthorn and pulled the hidden basket out.

"What's this?" He said in mock surprise, " The picnic fairies must've known we would be here tonight!"

Luna giggled gleefully as he pulled out all the food. He handed her a sandwich and a fork.

"What's the occasion Nev? Don't tell me Sprout retired already, she has a good five years before she should be retiring." said Luna.

"No, I just wanted to surprise you. I have something to tell you... It's kind of hard to say." said Neville awkwardly, feeling his face slowly flush.

"Just say it, it's always the best protocol with difficult things." Luna said calmly.

"Well... I am. I suppose I should say I have. Er.. I have feelings for you Luna, I think I'm in love with you. I've been in love with you for the last year. You're so brave and so beautiful." Neville stopped before he started rambling on.

He stared at Luna, trying gauge her response which was of course completely impossible. To Neville it seemed like many excruciating minutes passed. In reality it was only a single moment in which Luna took the time to throughly analyze her feelings.

"I care for you Neville, I don't know if this caring will develop into love. I don't want to lead you on... I'm willing to test out the waters there. We could date or go steady or whatever they call it... Whoever they are." said Luna in an oddly serious tone.

"Have you ever tasted elvish wine?" Neville asked not quite able to meet her eye yet,

"Nope, my dad said it was rather tasty but he distrusts the elves because they once gave him leprechaun gold for some rare item. After that he refused to buy anything they made."

He handed her a glass full and poured himself a glass before setting the bottle down in a safe spot. Looking her in the eye and smiling they toasted to the future and each drank deeply.

"This is delicious! It tastes like chamomile and dandelions... And apple it's so sweet! I can even taste mint now, I bet this is incredibly healthy. Did you know ancient wizards created wine as a way to help control death and disease amongst muggle populations, they would put a combination of herbs and spices in each bottle that was even said to cure cancer. Cancer is something muggles have to deal with that I don't quite understand but I know the muggles don't have a cure for it now. They started making their own spirits and then wizards had to separate themselves, some wizard healers still try to enlighten muggle doctors on the use of certain potions but it's illegal now." said Luna.

"Well that's cruel... We could potentially cure their life threatening diseases but we don't because we have secrecy laws to abide by!" Neville was outraged he had never known any of that. Though he had to admit it was nice that they had gotten past the awkwardness so easily and fell back into talking as they normally would.

Their suddenly romantic picnic was normal, they talked of things deep and shallow. Luna sitting a smidgen closer to him then perhaps she would have normally sat. After they finished the food the two found themselves tired and ready for bed yet unwilling for the night to end. So they continued talking until Neville noticed the sun beginning to rise.

"Vermy! I can't let the sun touch her!" He exclaimed.

Both of them sprang into action jumping up they ran to the door of the green house and propped it open with a small rubbish bin. The venomous tentacula was asleep already so the two gently lifted the heavy pot and walked it slowly to it's well shaded spot in the greenhouse. As they made their way back into the house their hands found each other and became quite comfortable. When they reached her bedroom door Neville paused, unsure how to say goodnight.

"I'll uh.. See you in a couple hours at breakfast. Try and get some sleep?" I he said immediately dreading his word choice, it was hardly romantic.

Luna stepped close to him and looked him fiercely into his eyes before kissing him softly on his lips. The kiss rendered him speechless so she spoke for him,

"Goodnight Neville."


End file.
